ILLERINE:
This is a narrow, diamond shaped continent, set mostly within Golgotha's tropical zone. It is dominated by the Diamond Peaks (a southerly extension of the Iron Mountains) along its western and southern shores with much of the remainder overun by a thick jungle populated by savages and dotted with the ruins of all but forgotten civilizations.
Illerine's sapient inhabitants include humans and lizardmen, along with mind flayers, grimlocks, syllix, and yuan-ti. Non sapient life includes all manner of insects and reptillians (giant ants, ankeg, frogs, lizards, snakes, ect) who appear to have survived the Final War in much better shape than their warm blooded counterparts, along with various mutated monstrosities (basilisks, catoblepas, ect) as well as goats, rats, cats, pigs, and the like. Its central jungle - the Black Tangle - is one of the very few remaining true forests on this world, and in addition to the more normal tropical vegetation also has such nasty plant life as giant sundews, shambling mounds, choke creepers, and yellow musk creepers.
PASSAR:
Long ago, the Vanmarian Empire invaded Illerine, and after long fighting, managed to sieze control of its northernmost tip, where Illerine (almost) connects with Bext, forming the state of Passar. Passars inhabitants - a mix of bronze skinned northerners and dark skinned southerners - are an intensely patriotic bunch, seen by the other members of the Alliance as a bit simple and backward. Many are hunters or loggers, others labor on huge plantations.
The Invaders maintain a substantial presence in Passar, using it as a base of operations from which they explore (plunder) the rest of the continent. Every few months, Invader expeditions, sometimes hundreds strong, will march from here with the goal of reaching this or that long lost city; months later a handfull of tattered, fearfull survivors will return with wild tales of monsters and black magic - and often enough in the way of relics to prompt yet another expedition.
The Cleft:
Said to have been created during the Final War, this is a thousand foot wide gap between Bext and Illerine, with cliffs rising as much as a thousand feet to either side - at least in the west. To the east, it is a wide channel carved through low lying swamp country. It is crossed only at Passar.
Passar:
Set on both sides of the middle portion of the Cleft, Passars principle feature is a long stone causeway crossing the Cleft, broken here and there by great wooden drawbridges. While Passars north side is a mere clutch of drab stone buildings, its south side is a metropolis of tall rickity wooden structures packed with poor people and decaying brick edifaces occupied by the decadent rich, all of whom mingle in the long narrow market along the waterfront. The Invaders maintain a large, raucious garrision at the east end of town. From here crude roads maintained at great cost march west to the convict worked mines of the Diamond Peaks, south to the Dark Tangle, and east to M'sulisk.
Doomford:
So named because of many hungry creatures lurking in the Black River at this point, Doomford is the southernmost outpost of the Alliance, where the ill built stone paved road from Passar city stops. On the other side of the river - crossed by huge rafts or a swaying bridge of vines and sticks - a much rougher track continues southward through the monster infested Dark Tangle to the Diamond Peaks, eventually reaching Thousand Shrines and Cabaron. Doomford itself consists of a walled palisade surrounding a score of buildings set on the peak of flat topped hill.
DARK TANGLE:
A huge expanse of swampy plains crisscrossed by slow murky rivers and overgrown with a profusion of short trees, the Dark Tangle dominates the heart of Illerine, with tentacles extending clear to the northern coast in places. It is a place of multifareous hazards, from carniverous plant life to blood thirsty lizardmen to deadly diseases, to name but a few of its many perils.
The Dark Tangles depths have always been mysterious; even before the Final War there were tales of lost cities and forgotten secrets within its depths. The Dark Tangle very nearly perished as a result of the energies unleashed in the Final War; only through sheer vitality (with maybe a bit of assistance from the gods) did it survive at all.
These days the dominant inhabitants of the Dark Tangle are the lizardmen, who (mostly) labor under the direction of the lizard kings and yuan-ti who rule from otherwise forgotten ruins at the jungles center. The lizardmen came in a bloody wave in the midst of the Final War, fleeing the sundering of their island nation. For whatever reason, they proved more able to withstand the destructive forces unleashed at the end of that conflict than did the area's humans; hence more of them survived.
The yuan-ti are the decendants of humans who were outcast even before the Final War, rulers of a decadent city state at the forests heart. They survived the holocaust by working vile rituals, but these magics had great cost; their offspring shared the attributes of both humans and snakes. In the centuries since then, both their ambition and their insanity have increased; they are now a major power behind the lizardmen.
The Syllix hold themselves aloof from the other races of the Dark Tangle; but twice in the past five hundred years they have undergone `eruptions' - an exponential increase in population coupled with massive raids on their neighbors. It was the first of these eruptions that resulted in much of Illerines human populace fleeing to Bext, and Passars subsequent annexation by the Vanmar Empire. Disturbingly, some of the syllix here seem to possess magical abilities.
A very few humans, little more than savages, dwell in the Dark Tangle.
T'issar:
This is a old ruin at the Dark Tangles heart, rebuilt by the lizardmen under the direction of a council of lizard kings and yuan-ti. Though it is located along the Black River, its very existence is little more than a rumor to those outside the forest.
Uxillix:
Said to have once been a city of the syllix, this crumbling, overgrown ruin is said to be over ten thousand years old.
M'sulisk:
This is a half flooded and half rebuilt ruin at the mouth of the Black River, dominated by lizardmen. Non lizardmen are confined to a single long winding street, partly walled off from the rest of the town (those who venture elsewhere usually become lunch for the lizardmen). While odd relics turn up from time to time in M'sulisks market, its main business is in the hides of strange swamp creatures. The Invaders - very few in number here - keep to the single `safe' street.
Breeker Lake:
This lake, at the center of the jungle, is a center of activity for the forests lizardmen, yuan-ti and some of the human savages roaming the jungle. An island in the lakes center, deemed sacred by these races, has many shrines (in the form of crude stone idols and totem poles) dedicated to a host of powerfull tanar'ri.
DIAMOND PEAKS:
While a few diamonds are still pulled from their depths in the convict worked mines of Passar, the Diamond Peaks owe their name to priestly poetry, not any great abundance of precious stones. A collection of tall mountains linked by sharp ridges, the Diamond Peaks extend all along Illerines southern coast, sending one spur that reaches northwards almost to Bext. While their upper slopes are stark and barren (with huge crystaline features that could be poetically interpreted as diamonds), the lower slopes and valleys of this range are filled with an abundance of vegetation, particularly those valleys that open out into the Dark Tangle.
Thousand Shrines:
Set atop a tall plateau, reached by winding tracks from both Cabaron and Passar, this city may not have exactly a thousand shrines, but it seems like it might - the shrines outnumber all other structures here combined! Here are found shrines to most of the gods and goddesses in the AD&D pantheons. Perhaps two score of the various shrines recieve regular attendence, some from the few thousand people dwelling here, others from pilgrims who have frequently traveled long distances to worship at this holy place; the remainder are empty, watched over by solitary priests or caretakers. The city boasts a modest spelljammer port - a large flat field next to a small alpine lake - which still recieves the occasional visitor. There are very few Invaders here; the ones that are here are noted for being both very polite (by Invader standards) and very good at intrigue.
Thousand Shrines has been of immense theological importance to many of the religions of Golgotha since long before the Final War; many of this planets most esteemed religions began with a vision experienced here. In times of crisis, people of all races often turn to religion as a means of succor; Golgotha during the Final War was no exception. The mouldering records kept at some of the shrines detail how the clergy here warned of impending catastrophe in the years prior to the Final War; and how only a few heeded their pleas, coming here to seek refuge. The chronicles go on to describe the sealing of the city at the start of that decades long period of destruction, with the imposition of impervious barriers of force at the mouths of the valley leading to the city - barriers that remained in place for forty nine years before being dropped, and of the divinely compelled exodus that followed, leaving the city empty save for a few acolytes and caretakers. These emigrants found themselves almost the only humans left on the continent. Some went south, reclaiming the ruined city of Cabaron, but most traveled north, crossing the Black River and founding Passar.
Ithquil:
Located deep beneath the Diamond Mountains to the south and east of Thousand Shrines, Ithquil is the chief city of the mind flayers, home to some four thousand of the tentacled monstrosities and several thousand more of their blind grimlock servants, descended from humans who agreed to serve the mind flayers in exchange for protection from the forces unleashed by the Final War. The mind flayers are a secret power, not just in Illerine, but in the sphere as a whole; among other things they possess a fleet of half a dozen spelljamming vessels, with which they travel to outposts elsewhere in this sphere and beyond. Those who investigate such things suspect that the mind flayers may have played some sort of role in the dimming of the Sun.
Cabaron:
Built on a steep slope on the southern side of the Diamond Peaks, Cabaron is a city of tyrants and secrets. Abused workers harvest `pika' and `fesser' spice (both greatly prized by the mind flayers) on the plantations dotting the upper slopes while their masters feud and scheme with one another in the city proper and the mind flayers skulk about the edges, now cutting a deal here, now disappearing a worker there. The only ways out of Cabaron are by sea or the long steep road through a narrow pass in the Diamond Peaks to Thousand Shrines (though rumors persist of a second, secret pass through the mountains).
Esama (The City of Pleasure):
This city, built on a tiny peninsula jutting out from the easternmost tip of the continent, is the classical decadent hedonistic tropical paradise, featuring ornate palaces on cliffs above golden beaches, palm trees (well, something like palm trees anyway), and nubile females. No few citizens of the Alliance dream of vacationing or retiring here - even the Invaders posted here seem relaxed and laid back (or about as relaxed and laid back as they ever get).
Esama had this reputation even before the Final War; that and a lack of resources caused it to be largely overlooked in that period of strife. During the last period of destruction, with pieces of the shattered moon falling from the sky and poisonous clouds sweeping the world, Esama's inhabitants undertook a drastic gamble: the entire remaining populace entered into the Black Tower, and there the high priestess invoked the spell of Timeless Torpor. Only one citizen in a hundred awakened once the spell ran its course seven years later, and many of those that did survive were reduced to near imbeciles - but they did survive - the only humans on Illerine outside Thousand Shrines and the Dark Tangle to do so. Esama has continued to be largely overlooked ever since, though it was ruled by a Vanmarian regent for a while during that nations time of empire.
